


Too Late

by Pyreite



Series: Lavellan Oneshots [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Not Trespasser DLC Compliant, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition, Post-Trespasser DLC, Presumed Dead, Spirits, The Fade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 12:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8801029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyreite/pseuds/Pyreite
Summary: Solas has come too late to reunite with Ellana after the destruction of Thedas.  The Veil is torn down.  The Fade is free and his beloved is presumed dead.  He finds an unexpected friend at her grave and compassion in the last place he thought possible.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Unedited.

"You came too late", said Cole. "She's gone far away".

The stones were arranged in a circle around a single slender sapling. Each was covered in thick green-grey lichen. A decade had passed since her burial, in a secret place, high in the snowy slopes overlooking Skyhold. The view was still breathtaking. The clouds kissed the mountain peaks that girdled Ellana's Gorge.

Her grave was concealed inside a copse of trees.

Cole, alone, remained of those that had followed her. He was ever-watchful as he waited beside the green growing grave for the Dread Wolf to return. He smiled, blue eyes clear and bright, when Solas clutched the sapling's trunk like a drowning man. The tree, barely a decade old, bent under the strain. Cole watched its leaves rustle in the wind as Solas stared at stones encircling her grave.

Solas was hard to read. Cole knew Ellana's loss distressed him, though he could not sense the turmoil within. A thick fog of magic and pride veiled the apostate's elven heart . Cole watched and waited as Solas doubled over as if in pain. He heard the ragged gasps. He saw a pale hand and its thin and shaking fingers touch the soil atop the grave.

It was reverent as if Solas were offering a prayer to a god.

Cole's brows furrowed. He knew the taste of grief, bitter and brittle and biting, like shards of broken glass digging into his skin. Solas confused him. Cole extended his spiritual senses, feather-light, willing himself to touch the elf's pain. He pouted when that same misty slickness washed away his gentle probing like rain off a wing.

Even Leliana, with all her secrets, had been easier to read.

"I still can't help you", said Cole. "Even after all this time. You want to bear your grief on your own. Oh, Solas. Your pride is a terrible burden".

Solas's shoulders sagged. His head bowed in acknowledgement of Cole's claim. He was too proud to weep. Cole stared at him with his sad blue eyes. The spirit was still kind and understanding a decade after the Inquisition's disbanding.

Some things hadn't changed in the chaos since he'd torn down the Veil.

"My pain is too old and too deep", said Solas. "I do not want you to drown in the mire of my own making".

Cole pouted. "I know".

He took a seat atop a moss-covered boulder. He tutted when Solas avoided touching sapling's gnarled brown roots. His pale white fingers dug into the soil instead. Cole watched him scoop out several handfuls of earth like a mabari digging a hole. Several moments passed and the hole got deeper.

"You won't find her down there".

Solas paused. He was kneeling in the dirt with his sleeves rolled up around his elbows. His pants was stained. His bare toes were brown. He had a smear of slick black sludge across one cheek.

He stared Cole, eyes wide with incredulity.

"This is her grave. She should be buried here".

Cole peered at him from under the brim of his hat. He shook his head. "She's not".

Solas looked around himself. He knelt in the centre of Ellana's grave. The saw a mound of earth, a reedy sapling, and a circle of stones. Solas was familiar with Dalish burial rites. A tree had been planted on her grave and it was marked by a boundary of stones.

"How can she not be here? The gorge and grave bear her name".

Cole turned his face to the sky overhead. It was pale blue and cloudless like a never-ending sea of serenity. "She's not here", he stated again. "Because she's with him now". Cole watched a bird wing by, its pinions black as night against the clear sky.

A raven flying to Skyhold.

"With whom?" demanded Solas.

Cole's chin lowered. He regarded the grieving elf solemnly. Solas's brows were furrowed, his eyes narrow slits, and his lower-lip had curled sullenly. He was angry, Cole guessed, from the expression on his face. It was strange to see emotion and to be unable to feel it.

"She's with the Dragon", revealed Cole.

"The Dragon", reiterated Solas. His head shook in bewilderment. He knew of only one dragon. Only Mythal had ever taken that terrible form. "I do not understand".

"When you couldn't love her like she needed you too", clarified Cole. "Another stepped into your place. He offered her all he was and more. He loved her without fear and restraint. Ellana accepted his heart in place of yours, Solas, because he gave it willingly".

"Who took her?" urged Solas. "Tell me".

Cole beamed and his white teeth flashed in the sun. Even this far from the Fade, he felt that familiar wild surge of Hakkon's joy. Cole laughed when Ellana's happiness swelled to bursting too. They were like twin mirrors, each reflecting the other's delight. He was glad that she had finally found her place in the world.

"The shining one armoured in frost and fire took her hand and quenched her desires", said Cole. He looked on Solas pityingly. "She broke his jaws", he explained. "Freeing him from a prison of flesh and blood, of bone and scale".

Cole nodded when Solas confirmed the identity of Ellana's lover.

"Hakkon Wintersbreath, the Avvar spirit of winter and warfare".

"He loves her".

Solas's smile was bitter. "As I could not".

"Yes", agreed Cole. "He offered her his heart and his hand. She accepted and went away with him into the Fade". He nodded to the slender sapling marking her grave. "Her clan planted that tree even though her bones weren't laid to rest here".

"It is a Dalish custom", murmured Solas. "One I can respect".

Cole nodded sagely. "I know". He paused, considering. An apology was useless, but Cole offered one anyway. "I'm sorry, Solas, but Ellana grew weary of waiting for you. After you tore down the Veil and burned Thedas to ash. She wanted nothing more to do with you".

"She hated me".

Cole sighed. "She couldn't forgive you for what you did, even if she understood why you did it. Too many people died. Too many spirits became demons. The weight of her guilt almost crushed her soul. Hakkon saved her as best he could".

Solas frowned. He regarded Cole with suspicion. The spirit's watery blue eyes were soft and sad. Solas knew he had his own secrets. He wondered if he would be willing to share one.

"Cole", he asked. "Why are you here?"

"Ellana asked me to wait for you".

"Why?"

His blue eyes glinted. "Because no one should be alone, Solas".

"Not even the most reviled man in Thedas?"

Cole nodded. "No. Not even him". He offered the elf his hand. "Will you come with me?"

Solas stared at his pale hand and calloused fingers. It was odd to be given such courtesy. He was hated through out the land for good reason. Few of the elves still living welcomed his presence. The spirits of Thedas too tended to give him a wide berth.

The Dread Wolf was a shadow many could do without.

"Where are you going?" asked Solas.

Cole smiled. "Home".

"And where is home?"

"With Ellana".

Solas gasped.

"You know where she is".

Cole laughed. "Of course I do. She did send me to bring you back".

Five pale fingers wiggled under his nose.

"Will you come with me?"

Solas nodded and grasped Cole's hand.

"I have nowhere else to go".

Cole's smile was warm. "You do now".


End file.
